Robert Lowery

I am delighted to have the opportunity for you to listen to a sermon that I recently preached in chapel for faculty and students of Lincoln Christian College. Even though I have preached on Rev. 21 many times, I have never taken the approach that I took in the sermon that you are able to listen to.

The text and the sermon was especially meaningful to me because of my present situation. Sermons are prepared in a variety of contexts–notably the context of the student-preacher and the context of the listener. The sermon I preached was prepared and preached in the context of a health issue that I am dealing with (please see below). Your prayers are appreciated.

When an occasion arises demanding focused prayer, I have determined that it is seldom the case that we can be too early in requesting prayer, but we can be too late. So I share the following prayer request with you.

Several days ago I went in for a consultation because I had been having trouble with kidney stones. The doctor ordered x-rays, and upon reading them he ordered additional ones that would do a more thorough job in analyzing a problem I was having.

On Wednesday of this week, Marilyn (my wife) and I met with a specialist. He informed us that the x-rays revealed that I have a mass/tumor at the root of the mesentery where the main trunk of blood vessels feeding into the intestine branch out. (My wife took notes, and if it were not for her ability to understand medical jargon, I would simply be saying: I’ve got a problem!) This mass could be putting out a type of hormone which determines whether or not the carcinoid is benign or malignant. If it is malignant, then the doctors would remove as much of the mass as they could, but it would not be possible to remove it completely because of its size and strategic location. If it is benign, then they would monitor it. Some of you have been on a similar journey, or have had or have loved ones and friends who have, and you well know the anxiety and the fear that such a report creates.

What is a relief to Marilyn and me is that at least at this point I have no obvious symptoms suggesting a malignancy. The doctor told us to be encouraged by this. But in a few days I will be going in for a biopsy. Marilyn and our children and their spouses ask you to be praying for us in the days ahead. Specifically, we are praying that the tumor be benign. Over the years when I have prayed for someone’s physical needs, I have also linked my petition with the spiritual. We are desiring a positive outcome with all of this so that I can continue to serve. But above all, we ask that God be honored in what happens.

In my preaching and teaching ministries I have stressed the necessity of community. Far too often we try to bear various kinds of burdens by ourselves. I have shared the above with family members, some close friends, and a few colleagues. It would be unfair and wrong for me not to expand the community of brothers and sisters. Marilyn and I determined that if we failed to share it with the Christian community at large we would be denying what we have been teaching and preaching over the years. Late last night I re-read these words by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps reading the Bible. When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God’s way must be done. . . . [We] do not want a life that is crossed and balked. But it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.

I have grown in this area that Bonhoeffer calls “the ministry of helpfulness,” realizing that my schedule is not my own and that I must allow it to be arranged by God. I have attempted to be more faithful in offering prayers and ministry on behalf of others in light of Bonhoeffer’s counsel.

I just turned fifty-eight and that event, coupled with this being Fall, my favorite time of the year, and now my condition, well . . . I have found that never have the colors of the season been more beautiful to me and never has the importance of sacred time with family and friends and colleagues been more treasured.

Years ago when I was a teenager I met former New York Yankees player, Bobby Richardson. He preached at a youth rally at my home church in Indianapolis. I do not remember the sermon, but I remember his prayer. It was a simple one: “God’s will be done—nothing more, nothing else, nothing less. Amen.” I continue to pray that prayer.

We will keep you posted.

And we are grateful for your partnership, friendship, and prayers.

Related posts:

1. A Brief Note and a Request for Prayer